Gaining our Freedom
by CrazyAssFangirl
Summary: This is kind of based off of the Maximum Ride series, but I didn't realize until after I had written it. Anyways, Kyle's life is pretty much sitting in a cage, waiting for those damn scientists to either bring him what little food he's allowed, or, more often, waiting for them to drag him off for torture. Until, something really kicks his ass into high gear.


I sucked in a sharp breath as the scientists threw me back into the cage that I had been living in for the past six years, I was taken only a few months before I turned nine. "Got anything more to say, ya smartass?" The scientist asked, his rank breath washing over me like a noxious cloud.

"...Yea, actually. I do. Go fuck yourself, asshole." I grinned cockily as the scientist spluttered angrily. "What? Does SHH06 have your tongue? Or are you just too stupid to spew off anything other than insults?" The scientist grabbed a couple of the front bars of my cage, and shook it, causing me to crash into the back wall of my cage. I coughed roughly, even though it wracked my body with pain. As I coughed, small specks of blood came out of my mouth. I groaned as my vision started to fade in and out of focus.

"Not so cocky now, huh? Worthless little shit. I don't even know why we keep you alive." He grinned, so sure that something that trivial would break me. I just looked at him.

"I have no idea why you guys bother to keep me either. Like hell I'm gonna let you control me. I am Kyle _motherfucking_ _ **Broflovski**_. I refuse to let you dictate how I live out my life. Now go do us all a favor and go _brush your god-damn teeth!_ " He growled, shook my cage a few more times, then stalked out of the holding room, obviously trying to make it look like he _hadn't_ just gotten told off by the human experiment known only as SHH06 to almost anyone in this god damned building. It really sucked to be one of the ones on the inside of the cages. Nobody gave a damn about us, and they used us for experiments. Of course, this was unlike a superhero movie where an experiment goes wrong and someone gains amazing powers. These scientists knew what they were doing, and deliberately gave us superpowers. I was stuck in here with people from all over the United States, and even Canada. I was from Seattle, Washington -along with a childhood friend named Tweek Tweak- Clyde Donovon was an orphan living on the streets of New York City, Kenny and Karen McCormick were from a poor family in Texas, Ike had been abandoned after he was born, so he had no family or last name, Christophe was a kid that had been in foster care since he was in the second grade, and Carmen and Thad were twins with no memories of where they had come from or who their family might have been. They only knew three things about themselves; 1) they were twins, 2) they knew their names, and 3) they knew that they were sixteen years old. We all had one thing in common: We were almost or completely alone in the world. Nobody to miss us, nobody that would notice or care that we were MIA, nobody that would bother looking for us. It sucked, but that was the harsh reality we'd had to face years ago, when we'd first arrived. We couldn't even harbor any illusions that anybody noticed that we had just suddenly disappeared.

"...le... yle...KYLE!" I snapped out of my daze to hear Kenny yelling my name. "Dude, are you okay? You're completely out of it. What happened?" There was obvious worry in his voice, and I tried to sit up straighter so I wouldn't worry him anymore, but my body felt completely dead.

"'m... all good, Ken. No need to worry. Oh yeah, before you worry too much, Karen'll be back soon. They were wrapping up her training as they took me back here. I could see her. She's doin' fine." Kenny gaped at me in shocked as he realized where I'd been. There was only one room that had only glass doors for a wall that led to the training room. It was the torture room. The logic behind having them placed side by side was it save the scientists time dragging a rule-breaker to the torture room, and two, the people being trained tended to work harder and not fight back as much if they saw someone being whipped bloody right in front of them. "I probably get to go back for the next week. I'ma be gone over night a few times probably. I haven't seen those asshats this angry since I tried to call the police that one time." I could feel the stares of my friends. I was always the most rebellious of the group because 1) I had a very short temper, and 2) I wanted to die outside this hellhole, even if I was dying in my old abusive household. Anything was better than dying in front of those that loved me, in a cage, where I would be manhandled by scientists who could literally not give less of a fuck about me. I almost passed out trying to remain upright, so I let myself slump in a laying position on the floor of my cage. "Hey Tweek?" I mumbled, my vision black on the edges.

"Yeah Kyle? What's up?" He replied from what seemed a hundred miles away.

"I don't wanna go back to Seattle, I wanna go ta Mississippi, or some shit. I wanna find a small-ass town and live there, and be safe. I want my little sis back, too." I was half delirious from blood loss by that point. "When's she comin' back? She said she'd be back after training, but she didn't come. What happened?" Too spent to do anything, or even keep my eyes open, I let them slip closed, and sunk into the blackness that promised rest.

When I woke up, I groaned. Everything hurt, and I knew that this most recent beating was definitely going to scar. My back was a canvas of scars, a personal (and painful) record of all the times I had disobeyed orders. From the faint scars from just a few knife slashes, to the long whip lashes that had been deep, long, and painful as hell. The fact that I had no bandages to bind my wounds and that I had to lay on a dirty cage floor, only made some of my wounds worse. I was jerked out of my thought by the frantic sounds of someone banging on their cage bars.

"KYLE! ARE YOU OKAY?!" Clyde yelled, and I sat up, wincing in pain as I did so, then untied the ratty hood the scientists had given me, and I tied the arms around my neck, hoping to at least prevent an infection this time. "Kyle, thank God you woke up. You've been out for three days. How are you feeling?"

"Like shit. I have a headache, so please be quiet." I looked up tiredly, and Kenny glared at me.

"Don't fucking scare us like that again. You aren't immortal like me. You won't just die and come back." He looked down for a bit, but when he looked up again, he smiled softly. "It's good to see you awake though. Nobody's come in here for the past three days, except for when they dropped off Karen. They haven't given us food, water, or bathroom breaks. There was an announcement over the speakerphones out in the hallway about commencing with Plan B10W though. Whatever that is, it's had scientists rushing around the hallways past our door." I felt my heart skip several beats before I leapt into action.

"We have to get out of here! NOW! They're gonna blow this whole building sky-high! With US in it!" I banged on my cage door, and there was silence from the others for a few seconds before I whirled to them. "I refuse to die in this shit hole! I refuse to let others dictate when I'm going to die. If I have to, I will outlive God making sure that I die on my terms! You guys want to see the outside world again? If so, move your asses, now!" I enunciated each word of my final sentence with harsh kicks to my cage door, and the hinges finally gave, after years of blood, water, urine, and other liquids spilling on them. I crawled out of the cage, and grinned grimly. Hobbling across the room to the safe, I put in the combination none of the scientists realized I knew, pulled out the keys, and went to each cage, unlocking them. Tweek had been asleep, but now he was at attention with everyone else.

A scientist ran into the room, then stumbled back in shock when he saw us freed. I recognized him as the guy that had tortured me three days ago. I stalked towards him on slightly shaky legs. Then, I lunged. I kicked his legs out from beneath him, then kicked him in the balls. Totally a low blow, but I was beyond caring. I mean, torture is also a really low bar to set. "Burn in hell, fucker." Then, I ran towards the door with my friends right behind me in single file. Most people didn't pay attention to us, and the ones that did were swept away with the crowd before the could say anything. Then, a trapdoor opened beneath my feet, and I grabbed the ledge desperately.

It took us too long to get to the main floor, and by the time we'd reached the lobby, everyone was gone, and there was a ticking coming from all around. "RUN!" I yelled, which was completely cliché and unnecessary because that idea had already occurred to the others. I stumbled along behind them, and I was almost to the door when a piece of ceiling fell on me, pinning my left leg beneath the weight. I cried out, and the twins ran to me, lifting the ceiling off of me, and supporting me as I hobbled between them to the exit. Bombs had already started blowing up, and parts of the building were in flames, I could tell by the deafening sound of the bombs, and the dark smoke filling the room. Thad pushed Carmen and I out of the door, right as huge pieces of lighting, ceiling, and office furniture from the second floor covered the entrance.

"THAAAD!" Carmen screamed, it was an ugly sounding scream, one of absolute pain and misery, and she desperately clawed at the building, trying to get to her twin. I grabbed her around the waist though, struggling against her adrenaline-filled rush of strength. Finally, a small hole opened, and despite my protests, and my grasp, she leapt through it, embracing her brother, who stood in the center of the room. And in that moment, despite their worn souls, raggedy clothes, and scratches and bruises all over their bodies, they looked like angels,. Then, they looked up at me together, mouth 'Thank you, Kyle.' before embracing each other seconds before the ground beneath their feet blew up, and rubble from above fell on where they had been standing. The smoke had thickened, and I knew without a shred of doubt that they were gone. _Nobody_ could've survived that, even if they did have superpowers like we did. I wailed, collapsing to my knees as I realized that there was no getting them back. I was almost certain that nobody would find their bodies, if there were even bodies left to find, and even if someone did and there were bodies left, I was sure they'd be charred/crushes beyond possible recognition. They had come into my life a mystery, and they had left it a mystery too. Maybe, maybe if there were an afterlife, they would get their memories back.

I'm not sure how long I knelt there, just looking at the burning building, but at some point, Kenny, Karen, Tweek, and Ike had crouched beside me. Clyde and Christophe stood behind me, and I'm pretty sure we cried all the tears our exhausted bodies could. I had walked around the empty field where we'd been held for years on end against our wishes, and I picked all the flowers I could find. I placed them on the ground, and Kenny pulled a knife he'd grabbed on the way out from his ragged pants pocket. Approaching a large chunk of wall that would be going anywhere anytime soon, started carving something into it carefully. When he stepped back, the rest of us walked forward to see what he's carved, as well as to pay our final respects. The message was long, but would allow part of them to live on for years to come. It said: **They, Carmen and Thad, were twins. They were sixteen years of age, and had lost their memories. They were held here for scientific experiments, but though they were human, they lived in cages. They died escaping, and we, their seven closest friends, will always remember them. They were our family, and we loved them. May they finally find the peace that has so long evaded them. February 3, 2015 was the day they died. We miss you Carmen & Thad, we love you, may you rest now.**

-Kenny, Kyle, Ike, Clyde, Christophe, Tweek, Karen. We're your family, now and forever.

I wasn't sure how Kenny got today's date, but I was thankful that he had put it all down. I hoped that someday, someone would find this marker and pay the twins as much respect as they deserved. That someone else other than us would finally realize how much they mattered. Then, Kenny knelt, picked up the flowers, and place them on a covered ledge made from the rubble, and place the knife, the flowers, and his scarf onto it. I untied my hoodie silently, before placing it above the ledge, where it would provide more protection for the flowers, knife and scarf. Each of my other friends placed something on the ledge, and we were all crying again.

The next two weeks, we just walked. We were headed east, and slightly to the north, but we never really gave a thought to where we were going. I spoke first, after a week and a half of silence, and my voice was rough from not using it. "We should go back every year. On the anniversary. We can visit them, I think it'd be good for us." The others stared for a bit, but then agreed. Thus, our vigil was broken. We walked to the nearest town and sat in the entrance to an alleyway, trying to figure out our next move. As we brainstormed, some people gave us weird looks, others gave us money, or pitying looks, and one sneering guy dropped a map at our feet. I saw that we were in Colorado, and as I looked at the map, I saw several cities and towns within a day's walk of here.

"Let's just find a town nearby, try to clean ourselves up a bit, then try to get some money." Kenny muttered, and since no one could come up with something better, we agreed. It gave us a plan of action, and a new wave of hope. We had no idea what we were doing, but doing something felt better than doing nothing.

As the moon reached it's peak in the sky, the seven of us collapsed to the ground next to a large, frozen lake. "Thank you guys. I'm truly happy to be with you guys outside of those cages." I muttered, before letting my eyes close.

Let me know if you want me to make a second chapter of this! I'll probably post this to Ao3 as well, just in case! I love writing stories, but it was really hard figuring out how to write this so that it could either be a one-shot or a multiple chapter story. Love you all! BYA! -CrazyAssFangirl : P


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